Tiger: Time to chill

This is one from my archives from Bandhavgarh.

Tiger needs to cool down in hot summers. Due to such behaviour experts suggest that tiger came to India crossing the colder mountain passes. Despite colonizing tiger has never developed liking to heat. Unlike we humans tiger doesn't have sweat glands in the body (they have it in paw), so it can't cool down like us. With destruction of forests water holes are drying up these days putting the tiger and other wildlife in steep trouble.

Mrudul, I had not processed so you perhaps forgot. We were in the same jeep. This was was near the dam in the grasslands in the morning after about 15-20 mins of waiting when you and the guide heard sound of bone cracking (and I couldn't). The previous evening we were drenched in rain while watching for the tiger. Longing for those days when there was no other tourist vehicle in sight and I used to sight tigers for hours together. Gone are those days...

Beautiful tiger landscape showing the habitat, the predator and the prey all in the same frame. The tiger sitting in water says many things, they do like to cool off. I recently saw a documentary where in some conservationists in Bhutan through camera traps came to know of tigers surviving at heights more than 3000 meters. That was a phenomenal discovery and your picture with the remark that the tiger traces its origins to colder regions aptly corroborates with the Bhutan camera trap experiment. There is so much more for us to know and discover, thanks for sharing.